Have you ever had the opportunity to sit on the sand at the beach and watch the sun go down as it melts into the horizon? If so, you know it’s a very beautiful and tranquil experience.
My family and I were at the beach recently enjoying a sunset when an unexpected occasion arose.
Another family came stumbling down the street, and it was evident they had been overindulging in the nearby Cinco de Mayo celebrations. We exchanged hellos, and after watching them take some pictures of themselves in front of the sunset, I offered to take a picture of their entire family. What happened next caught us all by surprise. After I took their picture, the family began to empty the contents of a sandwich bag into the surf and then took turns hugging one another. It quickly became obvious that they were honoring someone’s wishes by spreading their ashes at the beach. Then, the Holy Spirit started nudging me to offer to pray with the family–but I hesitated. I mean, I was trying to enjoy a nice sunset on the beach before my dad had to fly back home after spending a week with us. Besides, what if they aren’t believers? What if they reject my offer? I thought, “I don’t have to be a Pastor all the time, right?” Isn’t it amazing how we try to justify not obeying the Lord when He prompts us to do something? I’m getting better at obeying, but sometimes, I’m still slow to respond. Awaking me out of my internal discussion with my conscience, my mother-in-law said, “Alright, Pastor Jason,” to which I replied, “I know, I know–the Lord’s been dealing with me about it.” (Sometimes, God will use other people to nudge us into obedience.)
At that moment, I jumped up, walked over to the family and said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I noticed you were having a memorial for someone by scattering their ashes in the ocean. I’m a Pastor, and if you’d like, I’d be happy to say a prayer with you.” After some deliberation, they all decided it would be a nice idea. We all huddled up and joined hands in a circle as the sun disappeared into the Gulf, and I prayed for their family. Tears started flowing, with some sobbing uncontrollably. Over the years, I’ve noticed that some of the sweetest, most powerful ministry opportunities occur when I respond during what seems to be an inconvenient time. God has taught me that people need you when they need you–not when it’s convenient for you.
The family thanked me, and even though they still appeared a bit ‘under the influence,’ they hugged me and said they believed that moment was orchestrated by God. One of the deceased’s daughters came up to me again after I had sat back down to tell me my prayer made their family moment ‘so much better.’ That sounds like God to me–He makes our plans so much better.
Use Every Chance To Do Good
This moment reminded me of Ephesians 5:16, which says from the New Century Version, “Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times.”
Is it me, or does it seem like the world is quickly growing darker and colder? Have you been able to sense a shift in the atmosphere of society to lean more toward evil? There’s been a steady decline for years regarding what is ‘socially acceptable.’ Still, in my opinion, the last two years have grown darker exponentially faster than I’ve ever seen.
We need people willing to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and DO GOOD when the opportunity arises. The Bible tells us that as Jesus followers, we are the light of the world. This means you have been designed, engineered, and created to shine the Light of Christ in an increasingly dark world. Here’s the good news…it isn’t based on how you feel! As believers, we are the Temple of God and carry the Spirit of God on the inside of us; that means we are fully equipped to bring help, relief, encouragement, healing, peace, love, and joy to those around us (even when we don’t feel like it or it seems inconvenient).
The Light you carry IN YOU is greater than any darkness surrounding you! You may have read over that too quickly to let it sink in, so I will say it again–The Light you carry IN YOU is GREATER than any darkness surrounding you!
But we must be willing to let it shine. I say “willing” because our enemy, Satan, wants us so distracted and self-absorbed that we miss the opportunities that God places around us.
Being self-absorbed doesn’t always sound like “I’m so great, amazing, and awesome;” sometimes it sounds like “I’m so busy, tired, and overwhelmed.”
Sometimes we get so busy focusing on “me, myself, and I that we can’t hear The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
The enemy wants us task-oriented, while God wants us people-oriented. God’s primary focus is people, and so should ours. My spiritual father and pastor always said, “The greatest compliment you can have for another person is to be concerned for their eternal soul.”
I believe we’re living in the most distracted generation ever because we have an opportunity to be the most impactful generation ever. We need to allow God to interrupt our plans, agenda, vacation, sleep, and whatever else may be keeping us from loving and helping the people He places around us.
We see this example in Luke 8:40-56 when Jesus was headed to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter. On the way, Jesus is interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood. During those days, she was considered ‘unclean’ and shouldn’t have been out in public, but nonetheless, here she was, pushing through the crowd just to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. This caught the Master’s attention and disrupted His and Jairus’ plans to minister healing to his little girl. I mean, this was serious. She was his only daughter, and needed a miracle, so time was of the essence, or was it?
When you read this passage, you see that Jesus takes the time to discover who touched His robe in faith, so much so that healing virtue flowed from Him. (Faith gets the Lord’s attention!) Jairus could have been very upset. I mean, he got to Jesus first. His only daughter is close to dying, and now this unclean woman is going to ruin everything, or is she? Jairus’ daughter did end up dying because of this delay, but Jesus told him not to fear and to believe that his daughter would be ok. He went on and raised the young girl from the dead and restored her back to her family. Jesus was able to help both of their needs. You see, the Lord isn’t bound by time. With Jesus, it isn’t just A or B–it can be both.
He may interrupt your day, and you may have to leave your task incomplete, but when you allow Him to use you to help and impact other people, He’ll make sure you can complete your tasks. This is a Kingdom principle found in Matthew 6:33. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and what He considers to be right, then He’ll add all the other “stuff” (the job, the task, our plans, what we need) to our lives after the Kingdom work is complete.
But do we give Him permission to interrupt our lives? Honestly, I’m still a work in progress. I’m not where I’d like to be in this area, but I’m better than I used to be.
Years ago, the Lord gave me a saying that helps me stay focused in this area. He told me that “we were all born for someone else.” That means we’re on this earth to help and impact other people for the glory of God. To do this with more power and effectiveness, we all need to learn to be flexible and pivot away from what we’re currently doing when the need arises. This allows Jesus to be our Lord and our Shepherd leading and guiding us through life.
This World is growing darker, and people need the Light you’re carrying inside you. We need to be willing to use every chance to DO GOOD. It can start with a smile, handshake, a hug, holding a door, a prayer, sitting and listening, or in countless other ways.
In the end, when we get to Heaven, we all want to hear “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.” But to hear “Well done,” we must make sure that we live our lives following Him and doing good.
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